The present invention relates generally to the field of crowdsourcing, and more particularly to analyzing the playback of an online video and augmenting the online video with crowd sourced information.
Crowdsourcing occurs when a business or individual (e.g., crowdsourcer) advertises a problem and/or project via a related website or Internet, and invites geographically dispersed subject matter experts and/or the general public (e.g., crowd, unofficial group of individuals, etc.) to propose a solution and/or participate in finishing the project. Crowdsourcing solicits contributions from a large group of individuals, such as an online community, to provide needed services, ideas, and/or content that answer the advertised problem and/or project. The online communities are virtual communities (e.g., social network of individuals) which allow the members to interact and collaborate with other members primarily over the Internet. The online communities act as an information system, which studies complementary networks utilized by the individuals and/or organizations to collect, filter, process, create, and distribute data and/or information.
Streaming media is multimedia that travels as a stream of data from a server via a service provider (e.g., internet service provider, cable company, satellite, managed service providers, etc.) to an end-user. The end-user receives the streaming media and is able to view the streaming media throughout delivery and/or after delivery (e.g., play, replay, etc.) via a decoder or a plugin. The decoder is a stand-alone player or a plugin that works as part of a Web browser. Unless watching a live broadcast, streaming media allows for pausing, back-up (i.e., rewind), move forward (i.e., fast forward) in addition to playing, similar to that of watching a digital video recording.